School board considers radical changes

For the Catholic Herald

6/10/15

Last month, the Fairfax County School Board voted 10-1 to
become the only school system in Virginia to add "gender
identity" to its anti-discrimination policy. The board is now
preparing its next step - a vote later this month on broad
changes to its Family Life Education Program, including
lessons related to gender identity beginning in seventh
grade.

"The church," according to "The Truth and Meaning of Human
Sexuality" (Pontifical Council for the Family, 1985), "has
always affirmed that parents have the duty and the right to
be the first and the principal educators of their children.
Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents,
must always be carried out under their attentive guidance"
(No. 5).

Residents of Fairfax County or Fairfax City can have critical
input into the board's vote. The Virginia Catholic Conference
encourages concerned Catholics to consider taking the
following two actions:

1) Email the board now to provide input. Go to vacatholic.org
and click on "input needed" to send an email to the board.
The comment period is open until June 19.

- Grade 8: "Individual identity will be described as
having four parts - biological gender, gender identity
(includes transgender), gender role and sexual orientation
(includes heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual). The
concept that sexuality is a broader spectrum will be
introduced."

- Grade 10: "Emphasis will be placed on an understanding that
there is a broader, boundless and fluid spectrum of sexuality
that is developed throughout a lifetime."

In addition to gender identity items, other proposed changes
to the Family Life Education (FLE) curriculum include:

-Moving many FLE lessons from the FLE curriculum to
"Emotional and Social Health," making those lessons mandatory
with no opt-out.

-Explaining, within FLE, school health care services and how
to access them, as well as "how to obtain various methods" of
contraception. It's unclear if parental consent is required.

"In prayer and in public, your voices are urgently needed to
bring Gospel values to bear on vital decisions being made by
those who represent you," said Jeff Caruso, executive
director of the VCC, the public policy agency representing
Virginia's Catholic bishops and their two dioceses.

For more on the church's teaching on human sexuality, consult
the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states,
"Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his
sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and
complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and
the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and
of society depends in part on the way in which the
complementarity, needs and mutual support between the sexes
are lived out" (No. 2333).